What Should a Riding School Horse Be Like?
A few years ago, when I was a dealer, I had many amusing experiences. Both good and bad, but this particular time, we all had a big laugh. I mostly dealt with horses for riding schools in Hungary, which I then brought back to Sweden. There was a significant shortage of riding school horses in Sweden, which probably still exists. Riding schools want gentle, well-trained horses, which are hard to find at the right price in Sweden.
I looked at ads from Sweden before I traveled, but quickly realized that the horse they advertised was not always the one they had. There are places in Hungary where many gypsies live, and they have many horses. However, you need to be quite skilled at identifying what kind of horses they are, as you can easily be deceived. I always had an interpreter with me to feel safe in these areas. You can’t buy a horse with a card, so you need to carry a lot of cash if you want to trade with these people.
On the particular day I want to tell you about, I had two friends from Sweden with me. It was always fun to have friends along, as it was a long drive from Sweden to Hungary and back again. Good to have company and someone to talk to.
We had found some phone numbers that my interpreter, Tamas, called to find directions. It was quite a long way on bad roads, so time was passing, and we needed to hurry if we wanted to see several horses. Finally, we arrived, and as usual, I had the trailer with me, because if you found a good horse, you had to act quickly.
This man I found had many different horses of all sizes and breeds, and he brought out one after another that was not at all suitable as riding school horses. You have a model in your head and think they should be calm and gentle, ridden and preferably driven. Finally, he brought out a completely crazy horse that probably hadn’t been out for a very long time and proudly showed it off. After it had been rearing and galloping around on the longe line for five minutes, I asked Tamas if he could ask if he had any riding school horses. The last one was certainly very beautiful, but I didn’t have the time or money to buy untrained, overly energetic horses since I was looking for riding school horses.
The man thought for a bit but said he had an uncle who also had horses not far from him, and he might have more of what I needed. We all drove there to take a look. While the man was inside the stable leading out a horse for us to see, we talked outside a bit about horses in general and mentioned a stallion that was very popular at the time named Cor de la Bryere. The man came out of the stable with a big smile and a horse that was not under 25 years old, quite sway-backed, and had certainly seen its best days but was very calm (as we had asked for). “This one,” he said, “is by Cor de la Bryere,” and pointed at the poor horse, which you could easily take just because you felt sorry for it. We all looked at each other and started laughing out loud. We couldn’t stop. You must be a very good dealer to convince us that horse had such lineage.
We did find horses later, but it was never easy to find exactly the horses I wanted to bring home. Many trips were made, and it was always a great experience.
